Nothing New

The great writers, one piece at a time.

Walt Whitman

Leaves of Grass

410 poems · ~14 months at one per day

The great democratic poem of the self and America, from the ecstatic Song of Myself to the elegies of old age—Whitman’s lifework, complete.

One’s-Self I Sing

One’s-self I sing, a simple separate person, Yet utter the word Democratic, the word En-Masse.

Of physiology from top to toe I sing, Not physiognomy alone nor brain alone is worthy for the Muse, I say the Form complete is worthier far, The Female equally with the Male I sing.

Of Life immense in passion, pulse, and power, Cheerful, for freest action form’d under the laws divine, The Modern Man I sing.